AN iconic stained glass window at St John’s Church was smashed by vandals back in 2006 - shocking minister Reverend Andrew McGurk.

The local minister told the News the window, which depicted a shepherd and his sheep and was about 100 years old, and was donated to the church by a local family.

In happier news, the Brisbane Queen festival was celebrating its 70th anniversary.

Stephanie Connell followed in the footsteps of Ena Baird who became the first Brisbane Queen in 1936, two years after Sadie McNab was crowned carnival queen.

The annual celebration celebrated the life of Sir Thomas Brisbane and the links between Australia and Largs.

A full range of activities had been lined up including a crowning ceremony, ceilidh, speed boat trip, a visit to Nardinis and Largs Museum, and Waverley cruise.

The sun shone brightly on the Skelmorlie Gala Day which took place to celebrate the arrival of a new gala queen Kirstin Logue.

In other news end of term Largs Academy school show spectacular proved to be a huge success with sell-out audiences every night. The music department produced a show of two halves, the first being ‘Rats’, a musical tale of the Pied Piper performed by the S1 and S2 choir, and in the second half, the seniors performed highlights of Saturday Night Fever.

Senior management at Largs Yacht Haven expressed their 'complete resistance' to the possibility of hosting the Viking Festival fun fair in future years. The director of the yacht haven wrote to the Viking Festival committee to oppose a suggestion made by former community councillor Liz Aitken that the fair could successfully relocate to the marina.

Largs doctors took the first major step in a process that would eventually see all local health services operating out of Brooksby.

The Aitken Street and Frazer Street surgeries were merging in a move that was expected to make it easier for patients to gain access to medical services. All were now working under the new title of ‘Largs Medical Group'.

Finally a Fairlie OAP urged angry viewers to write complaints over TV reception problems to Ofcom regulators. Charlie Vassie, of Keppenburn Avenue, was furious at the loss of analogue TV pictures in the west coast of Scotland which resulted in a World Cup blackout for two days.

He said: “We pay our licence fee and we get treated like this.”

Transmission company Arquiva blamed the most recent problem on a electricity supply fault and were carrying out repairs.